Print media handling mechanisms, for example, inkjet printers, may include a print head for printing an image on a sheet of print media in a printzone, and a drive system for moving the sheet through the printzone. The drive system may include a drive roller mounted on a shaft wherein the shaft may be positioned perpendicular to the direction of media travel. A pinch roller may pinch the sheet against the drive roller so that the drive roller advances the sheet along the print media travel path. To print an image the print head may be propelled back and forth across the sheet, in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the sheet, depositing ink in a desired pattern on the sheet as the sheet is moved through the printzone by the drive roller. To facilitate printing of the image on the sheet in a correct position, one may desire to position the sheet of print media in a known location prior to printing thereon.
Many attempts have been made to correctly position a sheet in a known location prior to printing thereon. One such prior art device includes a tapered roller mounted on a drive shaft to rotate about the drive shaft axis so as to move a sheet laterally into a known position. However, tapered rollers may require a relatively long travel path to effect movement of the sheet through the required lateral distance. This is particularly true when there may be other forces acting on the sheet that may need to be overcome. For example, the force on the sheet in the direction of forward motion may need to be overcome in order to effect lateral motion. Moreover, tapered rollers may not function well when the print media travel path is curved back upon itself due to drag forces associated with the curved paper path and constraining forces on the sheet from other rollers. Additionally, tapered rollers may tend to rotate the media as it is moved laterally so that a corner of the sheet may contact a reference wall prior to the remainder of the sheet. Accordingly, tapered rollers may result in the corner of the sheet becoming bent thereby hindering alignment of the sheet in a known location or position.